Hey bro, do you know me?’ Stray kiwi dog winds up in suburban Sydney

THIS kiwi dog was #LostAzBro in Sydney with everyone wondering if he had doggy paddled across the Tasman.

“HEY Bro, do you know me??”

It was a tongue-in-cheek post on Facebook from the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home that was trying to reunite a dog called Baloo with its owners, who were from Hastings, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

The dog, a New Zealand Huntaway, was over 2000km away from home and no one knew how or why he had turned up in suburban Sydney.

Baloo was found running amok in Hurstville, in Sydney’s south, Claire Garth, spokeswoman from Sydney Dogs and Cats Home told news.com.au. Although he was microchipped he wasn’t in any Australian database. A quick check of the collar revealed a tag that led them to the Hastings District Council across the ditch.

“We called Hastings council and found out that Baloo’s registration had just been paid in June…so sometime between June and now he had clearly doggy paddled across the Tasman.”

Mystified as to how Baloo managed that, they turned to social media for help.

“We couldn’t get an answer from the phone number or the email address, so we went to social media with it.”

The post was seen by more than 100,000 people.

“My name is Baloo and I’m a long way from home, bro,” it read. “I come from a residence in Hastings, New Zealand! Yep! Nuu Zeland. I just came down under for the Bledisloe and sum Fush & Chups, but now I’m lost az bro! ?#?LostAzBro.”

One hilarious post — and 1000 shares later — the dogs home had its answer.

It turns out Baloo boarded a Qantas flight in Wellington after his owners, Sapphire Neho and her aunt April Neho, recently started a new life in Sydney.

A Facebook post last month by Sapphire Neho suggested that Baloo flew separately to them and she was looking forward to being reunited with him.

But just weeks after arriving in Sydney, Baloo went missing after he escaped from his new home.

“She was ecstatic,” Ms Garth said after the family were reunited with Baloo earlier today.

Ms Neho took to Facebook last night to say thank you to everyone who had helped, and said she couldn’t believe the “power of Facebook”.

She was so busy desperately looking for him she didn’t even check Facebook.

“I was in tears when I was running around like a goose looking for him. If I was clever the first place I would have looked on social media and my bloody emails. The one day I don’t check either.”